Farm bill passes Senate with bipartisan majority

A landmark five-year Farm Bill cleared the Senate on Monday evening, setting the stage for a long-delayed fight on the House floor next week over major revisions in agriculture policy and the future of food stamps.

The 66-27 roll call exceeded last year’s margin with 18 Republicans joining Democrats on passage. And the increased GOP support makes it more difficult for Speaker John Boehner to walk away from the choices before him — as he did last summer.

Text Size

-

+

reset

“We have a real shot to get this done,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).

Nonetheless, the task at hand is difficult. Republicans are genuinely divided over the role of government in farm policy, with the speaker — a veteran of the House Agriculture Committee — engaged in his own personal war against a new milk- supply management proposal in both the House and Senate bills.

Food-stamp reform and the deep cuts demanded by the House raise fundamental questions for both parties. On top of all this, nearly 200 of the 435 House members have never before been part of a farm bill debate given the immense turnover of recent years.

The result could be a bloody free-for-all, driven by regional and ideological differences.

New faces are sure to emerge — or at least old wine in new bottles. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), for example, has begun to step forward as a conservative voice for bipartisan reforms. At the same time, a high-profile maverick like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) could be pivotal in persuading allies on the right to give his fellow Aggies a chance.

“Me, the peacemaker,” King says with a laugh. “I don’t know if they will take me seriously in my new role.”

No one is more important than Boehner. The speaker has immense influence given his control of the House Rules Committee, and he pledged Monday to work for a “fair process” and not to impose his “personal will” on the House.

“I encourage other members of the House to approach this process in the same spirit,” the speaker said. “If you have ideas on how to make the bill better, bring them forward. Let’s have the debate, and let’s vote on them.”

Nonetheless, after last year’s stall, it would be a major embarrassment for Republicans if the bill were to die on the House floor. And Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is working actively with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) to get to conference with the Senate and then see whether a final package can be brought back for enactment by the August recess.

Indeed, at a time when sequestration is bleeding government agencies of discretionary funds, the farm bill is one of the few examples of the parties working together to reduce mandatory spending. The Senate measure promises more than $24 billion in 10-year savings; the House, $39.7 billion. Even a split would be the first real progress on the deficit prior to the appropriations and debt battles that will follow Labor Day.

Nor can the reforms begun by the Senate be ignored, given the glacial pace of any change in agriculture policy.

The much-criticized system of direct cash subsidies to farmers and absentee landowners — costing nearly $5 billion a year — would be ended. The bill imposes tougher payment and income limits, and substantially tightens requirements that federal dollars go only to those actively engaged in farming.